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Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to the idyllic Mount Adams district of Cincinnati, hoping to evade the stalker who’s been terrorizing them ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Since Julie doesn’t know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.

After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of increasingly unsettling harassment. Has Julie’s stalker found her, or are her neighbors out to get her, too? As tension in the neighborhood rises, new friends turn into enemies, and the results are deadly.

McKenzie is one of my fave authors and I have loved ALL of her books. Smart chick-lit with believable characters and plots that may seem somewhat extraordinary at first glance but that she writes with such heart and honestly that they are 100% believable. Fracture is a mystery and a departure from her usual genre, but she writes it with her usual approachable style. Some authors aren’t successful in genre-jumping, but this isn’t the case here at all. Fracture is a well written, well thought out mystery that I absolutely devoured.

These days I’m all about what I call “flash back” mysteries. You know, the ones where the book isn’t told in a linear fashion. We get a glimpse of something that’s happened and then we get some background on what lead up to it. We’re in the dark about what exactly took place, what the trigger event is, until close to the end. And there’s usually a WTF twist. I have been OBSESSED with this kind of mystery lately. Fracture does this brilliantly. For me, it’s the perfect example of this type of story telling. And writing this type of book isn’t easy. McKenzie kept me interested and wondering what the heck was going on without leaving me so confused I was frustrated. I am always in awe of authors who can do this.

I’m also a big fan of the unreliable narrator. This is a dual narrated book and although both narrators are dealing with the same story, their telling isn’t quite the same. I think that this kind of narrator is so true to real life. And it makes the puzzle of the story even more challenging to figure out.

If you are a fan of authors like Ruth Ware and Paula Hawkins, then you will definitely love Fractured.

Far away on the planet Meta, Loma’s going nowhere fast. She’s dropped out of school, dumped her boyfriend and is bored out of her mind. She longs to feel things. That’s where her idol, the lunatic poet Rac Shade, and his infamous madness coat come in. Loma steals the garment and makes a break across galaxies to take up residence in a new body: Earth girl Megan Boyer.

Surely everything will be better on this passionate, primitive planet with a dash of madness on her side and this human girl’s easy life. Only now that she’s here, Loma discovers being a teenaged Earth girl comes with its own challenges and Earth may not be everything she thought it’d be. Megan Boyer was a bully who everyone was glad was almost dead, and now Loma has to survive high school and navigate the consequences of the life she didn’t live with the ever-growing and uncontrollable madness at her side. Not to mention that there are people back on her homeworld who might just want Shade’s coat back.

I don’t read a lot of graphic novels. It’s one of the genres I want to get more into. So when the chance to review Shade, the Changing Girl, Volume 1 came up I grabbed it.

I really enjoyed it. It did take me a bit to get used to the format and really grasp the storytelling, but that’s because of my lack of knowledge of the genre, not the novel itself. I found the story very interesting and about a quarter of the way through, once I got comfortable with the format, I just devoured it.

Since this is volume 1 I feel that it just introduced the characters and the plot. I wanted to know more about how she’s dealing being in the body of a bully, but I imagine that will happen in vol 2.

This was a cool story and I’m really looking forward to the next novel in the series.

As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers a tiny skeleton, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who is the Building Site Baby?

As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.

But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn—house by house—into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women—and torn between what she can and cannot tell…

This was an awesome mystery novel and let me tell you, the final twist? I so didn’t see it coming. I literally said “WHAT?” out loud. It caught me completely by surprise and I love that that happened.

It’s hard to talk about it without giving anything away. All of the characters were believable and I love how the author weaves everything together. Everything unfolds at a nice pace and nothing seemed rush or really hectic. The format was more traditional than most of the mysteries I’ve read lately and it reminded me that while I love a mystery with an unreliable narrator, I also love a mystery that moves slower and delves deeper into characters. The pacing and the tone reminded me a lot of the TV show Broadchurch, which is my fave mystery show. I definitely want to read more from this author.

Susan Juby is one of those authors that I can always count on to deliver an engaging and amazing and awesome book. She has a way of dealing with serious issues with laughter and an honesty that can be brutal. She is also hands down one of the best writers of misfits and odd characters.

OMG these were interesting characters. And you know what? *SPOILER* They don’t fall in love!!!!!!! This is SOOOO refreshing and unexpected for the genre.

The format of the book is diary entries, and I just loved that. And Juby writes both Charlie Dean and John so differently. Both had very distinct voices and sometimes that’s hard to do.

Charlie Dean is such an optimist and the way she writes about some of the crap in her life so matter-of-factly is heartbreaking. She reminds me a lot of Rachel from Glee in season one. That whole the show must go on and I am always awesome attitude. John, on the other hand, is a bit of a pessimist despite the fact that his life is pretty good. The contrast between their attitudes and situations in life is my favorite part of the book.

This was a pretty unique book for the genre and I think everyone will enjoy it.

Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world.

KIT:I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I’m going through. How could they? I don’t even understand.

DAVID:In the 622 days I’ve attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I’ve never once sat with someone until now. “So your dad is dead,” I say to Kit, because this is a fact I’ve recently learned about her.

When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?

This is one of my fave YA contemp novels of all time. I have so much love for this book, the writing and the characters. I love when unlikely friendships/relationships end up being just the thing that the characters needed. And this was definitely the case in What to Say Next. A spur of the moment decision by Kit resulted in a friendship that, on paper, shouldn’t work. But it does. Because the real world isn’t perfect and some times the things that makes the least sense end up making the most sense.

I love David’s voice. Buxbaum nails it. I don’t want to give anything away, but the way she writes him is so true and amazing that he fast became one of my fave YA characters.

I whipped through this book and hated anytime I had to put it down. It was a captivating read and I just got more and more hooked as I delved deeper into Kit and David’s lives and friendship.

As soon as I finished I thought of all my bookish friends I wanted to recommend it to. Julie Buxbaum is now one of my fave YA authors and I can’t wait to read all of her other books.

Lucky and her husband, Krishna, are gay. They present an illusion of marital bliss to their conservative Sri Lankan–American families, while each dates on the side. It’s not ideal, but for Lucky, it seems to be working. She goes out dancing, she drinks a bit, she makes ends meet by doing digital art on commission. But when Lucky’s grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her childhood home and unexpectedly reconnects with her former best friend and first lover, Nisha, who is preparing for her own arranged wedding with a man she’s never met.

As the connection between the two women is rekindled, Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie. But does Nisha really want to be saved? And after a decade’s worth of lying, can Lucky break free of her own circumstances and build a new life? Is she willing to walk away from all that she values about her parents and community to live in a new truth? As Lucky—an outsider no matter what choices she makes—is pushed to the breaking point, Marriage of a Thousand Lies offers a vivid exploration of a life lived at a complex intersection of race, sexuality, and nationality. The result is a profoundly American debut novel shot through with humor and loss, a story of love, family, and the truths that define us all.

This book captivated me from the first line. There’s no preamble, no explaining. We are just thrown right into Lucky’s life. And what a life it is. Reading about her and the double life she leads was fascinating.

The writing is just so raw and beautiful. It put me right there, in the thick of things. The descriptions of what’s going on and what Lucky is feeling are gorgeously written without being too flowery. With just a simple line Sindu can paint a whole picture of emotions.

The story is an interesting mix of heartbreaking and hopeful. Lucky doesn’t fully fit in anywhere but she keeps trying to find her place in the world. As a caucasian Canadian the struggle between honoring her family and tradition and being true to herself is something I’ve never had to deal with but thanks to Sindu’s writing I understand it more.

If you like character-driven books where things aren’t all tied up nicely at the end (read=realistic) then Marriage of a Thousand Lies is the perfect read for you.

Sixteen-year-old Petula De Wilde is anything but wild. A family tragedy has made her shut herself off from the world. Once a crafting fiend with a happy life, Petula now sees danger in everything, from airplanes to ground beef.

The worst part of her week is her comically lame mandatory art therapy class. She has nothing in common with this small band of teenage misfits, except that they all carry their own burden of guilt.

When Jacob joins their ranks, he seems so normal and confident. Petula wants nothing to do with him, or his prosthetic arm. But when they’re forced to collaborate on a unique school project, she slowly opens up, and he inspires her to face her fears.

It’s no secret that I worship the ground Susin Nielsen writes on. She is one of my top five favourite authors and her books never disappoint. Optimists Die First continues that trend. This is a heartfelt and honestly written book.

I read this book at the perfect time. I was having a hard time dealing with my depression and anxiety. So despite the fact that I am way older that Petula, I could really identify with her. And I think a lot of readers will. For me Nielsen is the queen of writing about important topics without hitting readers over the head with it. She really gets into the psyche of her characters and shows rather than tells the readers what’s going on.

I’m a sucker for stories about people who don’t 100% fit in. Those who are on the edge of society, either doing their own thing or trying to fit in. Petula and Jacob are perfect examples of this.